1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to product filling machines for packaging food products and the like. More particularly, the present invention relates to an improved system for dividing a single product flow into multiple pathways in order to supply multiple product packaging machines.
2. State of Art
In the food production and packaging industry, products known as long goods typically require special handling. Long goods include products such as spaghetti, linguini, fettuccini and similar pasta products. When cooked, these products present unique handling problems because of their length and flexibility, and also because they are typically sticky. These characteristics make it difficult to handle and package the product without damaging it, such as by cutting or crushing noodles. Those in the industry will understand that each increment of damage to the product causes a corresponding reduction in the value of the final product. Accordingly, product handling and packaging operations are judged by two criteria: speed and lack of damage to the product.
In view of these twin criteria, dividing a large continuous stream of long goods, such as cooked spaghetti, into a plurality of smaller streams presents unique difficulties. In the product packaging industry, it is well known to divide a stream of product into several smaller streams and divert those smaller streams to individual packaging machines. For example, this approach is routinely used with dry or granular products such as nuts, berries, hard candies, or cigarettes. This approach is also used with liquid or mostly liquid product such as soup, stew, fruit cocktail, etc. In such operations, the product stream, normally flowing or rolling in an open conduit, is redirected by means of diversion gates which move from one position to another to send the entire flow of product down one or the other of two branching channels. A series of such gates can be used to divide one stream into many.
While a system of diversion gates works well with granular or liquid products, it is not suitable for sticky long goods such as cooked spaghetti for several reasons. First, the long noodles tend to snag on the diversion gate, either preventing the gate from closing completely, or causing the noodles to be cut and damaged. This system also tends to cause clogs because the entire flow is diverted all at once, rather than just a portion of the flow. Additionally the noodles which snag on the diversion gates also tend to cause clogs. All of these failures of prior art product diversion systems result in lost time, lost product, and needles maintenance effort and expense.
Additionally, prior art product stream diversion methods frequently cannot adequately cope with sudden changes in the system. For example, where a product diversion system is configured to divide one stream into four to supply four container filling machines, if one of the four filling machines malfunctions and has to be shut down, many prior art product diversion systems cannot automatically cope with this sudden change in conditions. Prior art systems do not automatically detect the malfunction, and do not automatically adjust the product distribution to shut down one outlet line, and redistribute and balance the remaining flow to each of the remaining lines. In such a situation, significant worker time and expertise is required to adjust the entire system to allow the product run to continue. In many cases, this results in down time for the entire operation.
It would thus e desirable to have a product distribution system that can quickly and efficiently divide a stream of long, sticky goods into a plurality of streams without damaging the product. It would also be desirable to have a product distribution system that can automatical detect the malfunction of any of its elements or of product filling machines associated with it, and automatically adjust the entire system to accommodate the malfunction without requiring shut down or significant operator attention.
It is therefore, an advantage of the present invention to provide a multipathway product distribution system and method which is suitable for redirecting long, sticky products without d aging the product.
It is another advantage of this invention to provide a multipathway product distribution system which is less likely to clog or malfunction, and requires less manitenance.
It is another advantage of this invention to provide a multipathway product distribution system which is computer controlled in conjunction with a series of container filling machines.
It is another a vantage of this invention to provide a multipathway product distribution system a d method which can accommodate the malfunction of any one or more container filling machines by redirecting the product flow to the remaining filling machines without interruption or operator effort.
The above a other advantages are realized in an apparatus and method for dividing a single stream of long, sticky product into a plurality of product streams. The system comprises a product input conduit for providing a single stream of product, and having a rough portioner disposed therein for dividing the stream of product into discrete rough portions. The rough portions are then dropped into a first diverter mechanism comprised of a reciprocating slide block mechanism, which selectively directs the rough portions into two outlet streams. Additional diverter mechanisms may be disposed in the outlet streams to further divide and redirect the product into any number of final outlet streams, such as four, eight, etc. The final outlet streams are directed through conduits toward container filling machines which precisely measure the product and place it into containers as desire.
Some of the above advantages are also realized in a multipathway product distribution system further comprising a computerized logic controller integrated into the system. The logic controller can accommodate the failure of any one or more container filling machines in any combination by adjusting the motion of the slide blocks and rough portioner to stop flow to any combination of final outlet conduits while maintaining uninterrupted operation of the remainder of the system.
Other advantages and features of the present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art, bas on the following description, taken in combination with the accompanying drawing.